Penance
by Celtic Knot
Summary: "What she offered was not another contract. It was a chance for redemption." Thane's POV on his recruitment mission.


**Penance**

Sunset on Ilium.

No sooner had Thane Krios slipped silently into the ventilation duct than the entire Dantius Towers complex went on high alert. Startled, he wondered briefly if he'd tripped some sort of silent alarm—but no, he had cased the building better than that. _He_ was better than that. And the sound of gunfire was moving away from his position.

Someone else was after his mark—and they were being a lot more obvious about it.

He followed the commotion to the front of the building _(by Amonkira, they came in the_ front door _?)_ and found a vent through which he could see the intruders. Keeping his sniper rifle collapsed in the confined space, he scoped in on them for a better view.

There were three of them. One was a tall, powerfully built asari whose biotics crackled and exploded like fireworks. _A justicar?_ he thought with some surprise. Well, if the mercenary guards didn't end him tonight, she certainly would. He would reach Nassana Dantius before this little invasion force did, and no one foiled a justicar's mission and lived. Thane sucked in a breath, feeling the pain in his lungs as if listening to it,

 _(sympathy in the doctor's voice)_

almost reveling in it, knowing it would be over soon.

The second intruder was a turian, big, broad, and heavily armored. Thane admired his work with the sniper rifle he too wielded. Without the advantage of surprise, a hidden perch, or even elevation, there was no time to carefully line up precision shots, yet he picked off the defenders' rear guard one by one in rapid succession, methodically taking down the heavies that had his team pinned down with rockets before moving on to the troopers still pouring out the doors. All while ducking in and out of cover, staying open to enemy fire for mere seconds at a time. _Impressive_.

Thane trained his scope on the third and smallest of the group. A human female, and clearly the leader. She used her omni-tool as readily as her assault rifle to take down her enemies, firing streaks of bluish and orange light to overload shields or incinerate armor. She reminded him of Irikah

 _(sunset-colored eyes defiant in the scope)_

in her fierceness. He nodded his approval as she followed a fiery blast with a merciful shot between the eyes.

This could be just the distraction he needed. He sped on, confident that this strange little squad could handle themselves and anything Nassana could throw at them.

Further up the tower, the sound of screaming drew him up short. Locating another vent to spy from, Thane found, to his utter horror, security mechs gunning down civilian workers—LOKI and FENRIS units pinned down a small knot of terrified salarians, preparing to finish them off. Without a moment's hesitation, Thane kicked out the grate and dropped down behind the mechs, pistol in hand, and took out the LOKIs with point-blank headshots, backpedaling quickly out of the blast radius as they exploded. A FENRIS slammed into him from behind and to his left, its shock attack sending pain shuddering through his entire body. He crashed to one knee with a grunt, then his biotics blazed and the remaining mechs smashed against the far wall.

More gunfire was approaching. "Into the elevator. You'll be safe there," he told the survivors. He locked the door behind them—better trapped and frightened than free and dead.

 _(a small boy hiding in a closet)_

 _(his mother bleeds out on the floor)_

By the time that mysterious fire team got here, they'd have cleared a safe path for the civilians to leave.

The sounds of battle ceased as Thane sprang back into the ductwork. He stayed put and watched as the three invaders entered the room, audibly surprised to find it littered with shattered mechs. They soon found and freed the civilians in the elevator, and Thane listened in on their conversation. He was stunned to learn that they weren't after Nassana Dantius at all.

They were looking for him.

Interesting.

Rather than reveal himself right away, he remained hidden, curious. He crept silently along their route, watching and listening, as they worked their way up through the towers. Would they turn back as resistance increased? What in Kalahira's name could a dying drell be worth to them, he wondered, that they would face down such danger to seek him out? What could they possibly want with him?

If it was his death, they were welcome to it. He hadn't planned on tomorrow.

It was when they encountered a lone Eclipse trooper on the third level that the human truly caught his interest. This Commander Shepard, savage as she was in battle, had mercy on her outnumbered, outgunned opponent, allowing him to leave

 _(how dare you)_

once she'd extracted the information she needed. She even convinced him not to alert the other mercs to their presence. _Very impressive._

The next room was full of mercs and mechs. While Shepard and her team dispatched them, Thane scouted ahead and found another group of salarian workers who had been cornered by three troopers. They'd be dead before Shepard made it this far, so he intervened once more.

 _(thugs in the lab, intent on destroying her research)_

A headshot from his hiding place took out the first merc, then he dropped into the space between the other two, snapping the neck of one and turning his pistol on the other. The salarians ran, but not before one scooped up a dropped gun. Thane hoped he knew how to use it.

Hauling himself back into the ventilation duct took bit more effort than before, and he had to pause to allow his labored breathing to even out. His illness was beginning to take its toll. The time to retire had come.

This time, he hung back while Shepard's team pushed forward to the roof and the bridge to Tower One. That was the one part of this infiltration that he'd been concerned about—the bridge was very exposed, heavily patrolled, and offered little place to hide. He'd expected to find his sniper skills put to the test. Instead, he simply watched as the three invaders cleared the crossing, then he sprinted across and back into the ductwork behind their position. They never knew he was there.

His lungs burned. It took all the considerable discipline at his command to remain silent and hold back the fit of coughing that threatened.

At last, he reached Nassana's penthouse. Shepard was already there, talking with her, calmly facing down the raised guns of three Eclipse mercenaries. It seemed the two women knew each other, that Nassana had had Shepard kill one of her sisters some time ago, and had thought the human dead.

"I got better," Shepard deadpanned.

Thane allowed himself a small smile. He liked her style, even if her blunt tactics lacked somewhat in finesse.

He shifted position in the shaft over Nassana's head, waiting for the right moment as Shepard kept her distracted and pleading for her life. But a wave of dizziness set his head spinning and he stumbled, the rifle on his back striking the wall with a loud clatter. Cursing silently, he froze as the bodyguards' attention shifted upward.

"What?" Nassana snapped at them.

"I heard something!"

From his vantage point in the ceiling, Thane could read the asari's body language like a book. She knew there was an assassin after her, and had assumed it to be Shepard when the human and her companions had come swaggering in the door. She had refused to believe otherwise, even as Shepard insisted that she was simply _looking for someone._ But now terror gripped her as she realized the assassin was still coming, that Shepard was speaking the truth, and that cold death waited in the shadows. Somewhere. "Damn it! Check the other entrances!"

As one merc went to secure the doors, Thane made his move. Dropping out of the air vent for a third and final time, his expert training and long experience took over. Neck snap before the first guard knew he was there. Throat punch as the second turned to investigate the noise. Pistol shot as the third came sprinting back from the far door. And then Nassana Dantius was in his arms, his pistol pressed to her stomach.

He paused for a moment, deliberately committing every detail of this, his final kill, to memory. The guilt of it, always denied but always secretly present, would be his penance. Time was too short for anything else. It would have to do.

He fired, cradling her as she fell, laying her gently on the console behind her and folding her hands over her chest. Even one such as she deserved dignity in death.

And even one such as he could ask forgiveness. He stepped back, folded his hands, and bowed his head. If Shepard wanted to kill him, well, Kalahira would welcome one who died at prayer. The thought was actually a relief. Even his breathing eased as his tightly coiled muscles relaxed in anticipation of the bullet that would carry him across the sea.

But the bullet never came.

Thane was vaguely aware of the turian saying something, but he allowed the words to pass unheeded. As his mind returned to the here and now, Shepard was asking to speak with him.

He intended to refuse her. He was done, retired and ready to die. But what she offered was not another contract.

It was a chance for redemption.

He had much to atone for, and now the Gods had granted him an opportunity to go to his rest with his soul unburdened. He would be a fool to turn it down.

 _Prayers for the wicked must not be forsaken._


End file.
